I've been before - can I come again?

That would be great. The more people mapping the better, and if you want help with something we'll do our best. Many people will come along to a session, start mapping with iD, but then want to come back and do more of a session using JOSM. Some of our sessions will also include subjects like Validating & Field Papers.

Before the event

Bring a laptop & mouse (you may be a wizard with a touch pad, but you can practice that later!),

Visit http://www.openstreetmap.org/ & sign up for an account (it would be really good if you remembered the user name & password as well!) - perhaps bookmarking the site will help?

There will be a lot of people at the mapathon, all sharing the same wifi - do your updates on the laptop before you get to us - no downloading films either, thanks!)

If you know you're going to want to use JOSM (ignore this bit if you don't know what we're talking about - we'll explain, honest!!), then download it & set up for your laptop - http://josm.openstreetmap.de/

When you arrive

We've found that it's best to group people according to their operating systems so you can help each other - look out for labels on the table for your system, and find a seat.

Have a look at the bits of paper we've put on the tables

Fire up your laptop & connect it to the wifi - there should be signs with the name & password displayed (It would be really good if the systems didn't 'hang' when we start because everyone's laptop wants to sync! - get it done early please.)

Have a chat & chill. There's no rocket science involved so you might as well enjoy the session.

Who's who?

We'll try to wear shirts so you can pick us out, but life's not always like that so we may be camouflaged like you! If we get it right there should be shirts with logo's for Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), OpenStreetMap (OSM), British Red Cross, and Médecins Sans Frontières, and we'll do our best to make sure you get what you want out of the session.

Outline of the session

It could vary a bit as we try to meet everyone's needs, but it goes roughly like this;

Welcome & introduction

Usual sort of thing, toilets, fire exits, pizza, drinks

Guest speaker(s)

The real McCoy with experience of trying to cope without maps (We have to put a time limit on these guys as their stories are so real & they want us to get to work producing maps for them).

Working Groups

Depending on the size of the Group, we may have to split up into different rooms now;

There will always be a beginners group, and we'll get you mapping as quick as we can, but give you the information so you get it right. You'll start off with iD, but you can change later on if you want to.

Mapping with JOSM. If you've tried mapping before & know what you want, this is probably the group for you. Although the other systems are good, this has the most specific systems that meet our needs.

Field Papers. We can only do this if local mappers have carried out a ground survey

Oh No, I just know I'm gonna be late!

OK, let's work this out. We still want you, and you still want to find out, so no great shakes. When you arrive, just quietly have a word with one of the helpers (look out for the logo's on the shirts) & they'll fill you in on anything you've missed, and get you up to speed.